Friday, 31 July 2015

Anyway... another odd post of another not-so-shiny car, because I find this stuff just so goddamn sad.

This is a 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet; one step below the Turbo in the range of 1984-1989 3.2litre 911 Carrera's.. most easily identifiable to me by the flush mounted front foglights compared to the earlier 911SC.

The Cabriolet mightn't be the standard enthusiast choice these days, but the 3.2 Carrera's are definitely a favourite of the early air-cooled 911's.

Which only adds to the shame when I see this one sitting here, unloved.

I walk past this poor thing most days, and it seriously almost brings a tear to my eyes just thinking about it. In the sun, the rain, and slowly losing air in its tyres until it sits just on those gorgeous Speedline alloys. Kills me.

It's still registered, so someone still cares to some extent; but the older registration decal on the front glass, and the staining/deflation of the tyres.. I'm thinking this has likely sat exactly where it is for a solid 2years or more.

Those Speedline-produced, RUF, 17" one-piece alloys.

Inside there seems to be an aftermarket Momo wheel/knob and headunit. The sun and weather has been less than kind original beige leather interior..

Poor thing.
I just wish I had the money to save it.

Interestingly (and as a consolation prize of sorts..!), I do have a set of late-80's Australian Porsche brochures I was given by a family friend when I was a kid..

Different wheels and no whale-tail wing, but how good does this look! What a great colourway..

I little rough estimating from back in the day...

July 1986 printing; spot-on for the car pictured above..

This offer still on the cards?

Australian pricing guide showing the 911 Carrera and Carrera Sport in 1988. These were NOT cheap in this country, and as I wrote here; my AW11 MR2 was little over $33,000 at the time. Yikes..

Possibly a linnen interior on the above 911?

..and one of these blues.

The old paint samples actually look to be painted bits of card, and as a result most are now slit/cracking..

I love this, and unfortunately likely as close as I'll ever get to owning a 911.

Saturday, 25 July 2015

Neat, different, and as-a-result interesting Charade Turbo, available on the Japanese used car market at the moment..

I embarrassingly don't know a whole lot about these, and am struggling to find out much info elsewhere.. so we're just going to have to look at the pictures.. and assume this is somewhat standard example of the badge.

Its a 1987 G100S Daihatsu Charade CX Turbo - first year for the third generation of Daihatsu's Charade; and this particular spec being a turbo version of the more basic CX variant..

... fitted with a single-cam, 2valve, carbed version of the CB 1.0 3cylinder.
The
higher-spec turbo models - the GTti/GTxx - had a twin-cam 4valve per
cyl head, EFI, and intercooled Turbo setup, on a lower comp version of
the same 993cc base.

Other than the wheel (/pedals/audio..), this thing really does appear to be something that could have been built as-is. The steel wheels, lack of aero, and manual windows seem to run true for the CX part of the name, while the 5spd and full instrumentation go along with the Turbo part. The fact the 3pot turbo is much lower in spec than the fuel-injected, twin-cam version fitted to higher models makes the 'CX Turbo' naming just make sense.
The decals seem correct, and I could be fooled in thinking that other than the coloured bars and mudflaps, this thing is otherwise standard. I sure hope it is anyway, because it gives me serious stripper-spec race-version vibes (like an Evo RS, or WRX RA..).

I really need to look into these further.

Regardless; this example is in great shape, and travelled less than 70k in the last 28years. The turbo three cylinder might only put out a little over 50kw, but despite the 5dr body, this thing weighs well under 800kg. I'm sure its a blast to punt around in.. and all for a couple hundred thousand yen.

Friday, 24 July 2015

ahh.. Vicroads. My state's roads and vehicle-registration body.
To go along with the European and US-market sized plates, have introduced Japanese styled plates in their original sizes, to fit the many Japanese built cars on our roads.

Available in two different styles to suit <=5digit, and traditional 6-digit combinations.
The two different styles were voted on (so could've been more ridiculous!), and finally introduced last month - on the 24th of June.

Bit of Silliness, but I couldn't help myself. Always seems like excessive money gouging by what is a government department (they offer an amazing amount of different styles, combinations, colours, etc - at a price), but I'm just stoked they do it at all.

They're bloody massive, and look a little odd with the smaller 'slimline' text (despite all the styles, they only have two or three different stamp sizes for the letters/numbers).. but hey, it'll do.